TODD AO ANAMORPHIC

35mm, 55mm, 75mm

ABOUT

About the Todd AO Anamorphics

BY: MARK LaFLEUR

Todd AO Anamorphic primes are vintage lenses from the 1970s and
1980s. They have a variety of base spherical lenses including Canon K35s and
Cooke Speed Panchros. They feature prominent streaking lens flares, creamy
bokeh and barrel distortion. The high-speed versions of Todd AOs are able to
produce extremely expressive images wide open, but they clean up when stopped
down. They are quite rare and hard to find, but they are a good choice if you
want a classic vintage anamorphic look.

They are sharp but they have really nice skin tones...really beautiful flares. The colors are really clean. They're pretty easy to use I think comparatively to other lenses. They're small and light.

STATS & DOWNLOADS

REVIEWS

Stephen Gelb

LensWorks Rentals

Todd
AO anamorphic lenses have fantastic anamorphic character. Waterfall bokeh
with soft, pleasing out-of-focus highlights. Skin tone replication is
excellent, rendering very neutral with a nice veiling glare, which really takes
the edge of the sharpness of modern digital sensors. Flare characteristics are
blue and purple and are quite easy. Lenses do not have compression issues like
Kowa anamorphic lenses. A unique look in
an easy to use package.

Kyle Stryker

Lens Test Director of Photography

This set is a really great vintage set from the 70s-80s. They have a very specific look and fall into the realm of the Cineovisions having such a fast T-stop, which produces very nice oval/ tear drop shaped bokeh. They do some very interesting things the wider open you go and produce an effect that really pulls you into the center of the frame. The flares are also unique in the way that they create a halo-like effect that loops across one another. The housings on this set are also very user-friendly with a modern feeling.

Mark LaFleur

Lens Test Director, Cinematographer and Owner of Old Fast Glass

Similar to Cineovision, Todd AO was making all
kinds of interesting lenses at the end of the 20th century including
some very exciting front anamorphic and rear anamorphic lenses as well as
standard-speed, high-speed lenses and anamorphic zooms. Also like Cineovision
some of their front anamorphic lens designs were built around exotic, high-performance
spherical lenses. The 35mm and 55mm we tested have K35 spherical lenses inside
and the 75mm has a Cooke Speed Panchro inside. All three lenses have very different
optical designs, and all three designs resulted in lenses that are packed with
character as well as performance if stopped down a little. Since all 3 lenses
are quite a bit different it seems best to go through them one at a time.

The 35mm T1.4 has a large front focus group that
rotates and telescopes just like a Lomo Round Front. It’s big and heavy and
breathes a bit. Wide open you can get the center of the image fairly sharp, and
the rest of the frame is soft and dreamy and pinpoint light sources will give
you some very cool effects. As you stop down the lens, sharpness, contrast and
the sweet spot of the lens all improve dramatically. The lens has plenty of
barrel distortion, nice oval bokeh, and big dramatic lens flares: basically
tons of character.

The 55mm T1.3 is a very different lens. This lens has more
in common with Panavision anamorphic lenses than anything else I’ve seen. The
front element is a large cylindrical element that soaks up light and is quite
prone to lens flares. The flares are big, with thick purple and sometimes blue
streaks. The focus happens behind that cylindrical front element, which is nice
because the front of the lens doesn’t move when focusing. It also uses astigmatizing
lenses like Panavision lenses, so focus breathing is very minimal and it only
appears on the vertical axis. The lens has a smaller sweet spot when shot wide
open and contrast is low. But even stopped down to just T2, contrast and
sharpness improve dramatically. You still want to keep your subject close to
the center of the lens, but the image is nice. At T2.8, performance is quite
good. The 55mm T1.3 is a great all around lens.

The 75mm T2.3 is slower and
warmer than the other two lenses in this set because the spherical base lens is
a Cooke Speed Panchro. The image is quite nice and wide-open performance is good.
Stopped down things get pretty sharp. Flares are big and bold like the 55mm.
All the lenses have high blade counts in their irises, so bokeh stays nice an
oval at any T stop. The 75mm breathes more than the 55mm and there’s a
different feel to it.

Todd AO anamorphic lenses, are rare, exotic
anamorphics with loads of character. Shooting with these lenses will make a
project stand out for sure.

Lenses provided by

RENT TODD AO ANAMORPHIC LENSES

LENS PROJECTION TESTS

Lens projections conducted by:

Notes From The Projection Room

BY: JORGE DIAZ-AMADOR

These vintage lenses were made in small quantities for the Todd-AO company to offer a less costly alternative to shooting in the Todd-AO 70mm film format with spherical lenses. The 35mm is unique for its extreme speed (T1.4). This is another vintage prime set with a lot of personality. “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” was shot with these lenses.